Google Releases Chatbot Bard to Compete with OpenAI and Microsoft

Google has joined the AI chatbot market with the release of Bard (bard.google.com), a chatbot that will be available to limited users in the US and UK, expanding to other users, countries, and languages over time. Bard is Google’s first public effort to compete with similar chatbot technology from OpenAI and Microsoft, but the company is taking a cautious approach to ensure the chatbot is trustworthy and reliable.

The release of Bard marks Google’s effort to protect its search engine, which is its most lucrative business, from the competition that chatbots pose. Chatbots can provide instant answers in complete sentences, without requiring users to scroll through search results. While A.I. technology can help Google’s products become more useful, it can also help other companies cut into Google’s internet search business.

Google has been racing to ship A.I. products since December and declared A.I. as the company’s central priority in response to OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT. The company is working to develop new A.I. technology quickly, but industry experts wonder how fast Google can move compared to OpenAI and Microsoft’s rapid pace of releasing their chatbot tools. Despite the cautious approach, Google’s release of Bard is a significant step in demonstrating the company’s capability to provide A.I. chatbot technology.

Google’s release of Bard as a separate webpage from its search engine indicates the company’s attempt to navigate the tricky balance of adopting new A.I. technology while preserving one of the tech industry’s most profitable businesses. The cautious rollout of Bard demonstrates Google’s commitment to providing reliable and trustworthy A.I. technology while keeping pace with competitors. The success of Bard’s testing phase may pave the way for Google’s expansion in the chatbot market, which has seen rapid growth in recent years.